Fuel mixture for internal-combustion engines



July 10, 1951 E. J. DROUILLY 2,559,605

FUEL MIXTURE FOR INTERNAL-COMBUSTION sncmzs Filed June 6, 1945 '3Sheets-Shoot 1 I 1 ll! H 2,559,605 FUEL MIXTURE FOR INTERNAL-COMBUSTIONENGINES Filed June 6, 1945 July 10,1951 E. J. DROUILLY 3 Sheets-Sheet 2lnvcnior Eu awe Jusrm Deoulwr July 1951 E. J. DROUILLY FUEL MIXTURE FORINTERNAL-COIBUSTION ENGINES Filed June 6, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 lnvomorf Evan: Jun-m DQOOH-LY R Hair-leg;

Patented July 10, 1951 FUEL MIXTURE FOR INTERNAL- COMBUSTION ENGINESEugene Justin Drouilly, Paris, France; vested in the Attorney General ofthe United States Application June 6, 1945, Serial No. 597,948

In France January 23, 1941 Section 1, Public Law 690, August 8, 1946Patent expires January 23, 1961 1 Claim.

The present invention relates to fuels for various uses andparticularly, but not exclusively,

fuels intended to be fed to internal combustion engines.

An object of the invention is to permit of reaizing for this purposebodies of high calorific power but which were not used practically up tothe present time for various reasons and in par-,

ticular in view of their vapour tension being too high orto'o low.

For this purpose, according to the invention, I mix the bodies inquestion with products which are more or less volatile. and soluble insaid bodies, so as to bring the vapour tension of the whole to a valueranging within admissible limits.

A particularoobject of the invention, concerning the feed of internalcombustion engines, is to permit of using, as fuel for said engines,ammonia which, alone, does not form with air an explosive mixture.

According to the invention, the utilization of these gases is madepossible by the addition of an auxiliary gas, of a density higher than0.1, capable of forming with air an explosive mixture producing the riseof temperature necessary for priming and starting the explosion of themixture of air and the first mentioned gas. Preferably, this addition ofauxiliary gas is effected in such manner that the volumetric calorificpower of the mixture of the gases remains constant under allcircumstances. Y

According to another characteristic of the invention. which may beapplied separately, the two gases above mentioned are first mixedtogether in constant proportions, the addition of the air necessary forthe explosion of the whole being effected only after these gases havebeen mixed together. 7

Among the auxiliary gases which can be used for priming the explosion ofa. mixture of air and ammonia (or an analogous gas which by itself doesnot produce an explosive mixture with air) I may cite other gases takenseparately, such as a hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, meth- -yl ether,ethyl ether, a. methyl amine or ethyl (Cl. 48-197) a method ofethanizing gases or mixtures of gases described in the French patentapplication filed September 6, 1940, for "Method of Enriching Gases inView of Their Use in Motors" by the fCentre National de la RechercheScientifique, or the method of methanizing gases or mixtures of gasesdescribed in the French patent application filed August 23, 1941, forMethod for Eliminating Carbon Monoxide From Gases Intended Both for theFeed of Engines and for Domestic or f Industrial Uses, by the sameapplicant.

For the sake of clarity, in the following. description will designate bythe generic word gas either a pure gas or a mixture of gases and itshould be well understood that the word gas applies both to permanentgases and to the vapours of bodies which, at ordinary temperature, arenot in the gaseous state.

It should be noted that the method according to the present invention isparticularly interesting in view of the fact that it makes it possibleto use, as fuels, gases which, up tothe present time, could not be usedfor feeding internal combustion engines. In particular, my inventionpermits of employing ammonia gas, which can be produced in great amountswithout involving the consumption of matters, such as coal, necessaryfor other uses and which enter into the manufacture of the other gaseswhich have been considered as possible fuels up to the present time.Ammonia can be stored up in the liquid. state in compressed gas bottlesin very advantageous conditions concerning the total weight to betransported including said ammonia and its container.

Among the auxiliary bodies which are particularly advantageous to employI can cite gaseous or highly volatile derivatives of methyl alcoholsoluble in liquefied ammonia and having therefore the advantage thatthey can be stored therewith, in the state of mixtures of givencompositions, in the same bottles.

The starting material, to wit methyl alcohol, has the advantage of beingalready ,manufactured (or being liable to be manufactured) at low costand in unlimited amounts, in the same manufactures as ammonia itself.

Among the derivatives of methyl alcohol which comply with the aboveconditions, I will cite by way of example and as being particularlyadvantageous:

1. Methyl ether which can be easily obtained, with excellent yields, bycatalytically dehydrating methyl alcohol according to well knownmethods.

2. Monoand di-methyl amines (either pure or in mixture) which can beprepared in known manners from methyl alcohol and ammonia, but which canalso, when this will seem advantageous, be obtained in another way, forinstance through the action of halogens on acetamide or by extractionfrom fermentation products.

These auxiliary bodies are, in the liquid state, soluble in liquidammonia. Their characteristics, compared with those of ammonia, are theThe three products above considered by way of example in view of theirexplosive temperature and of their power (characterized by the increaseof pressure resulting from explosion), considerably higher than those ofammonia, will render said ammonia capable of exploding when they aremixed therewith in suitable proportions (close to 20%). Furthermore, andfor the same reasons, the power of the engine will be improved. the moreso as these bodies have antidetonating properties.

In the case of methyl ether, as its volatility is close to that ofammonia, it will be possible to obtain, if so desired, the propergaseous, mixture by merely expanding the gas present above the liquidmixture in the bottles. In the case of monoand di-methyl amines, it ispreferable to expand the liquid itself in an evaporator, so as to obtaina gaseous mixture of constant composition.

On the other hand, it should be well understood that the inventionapplies, in a general manner, that is to say as well in the case ofgases mixable together in the liquid form, which is for instance that ofthe dissolution of a liquefled gas in liquefied ammonia, as in the casewhere the gases (or at least one of them) are not liquefied but merelystored together in a common container, for instance in the case of thedissolution of one of the gases (in the gaseous state) in the other gas,in the liquid state.

I may also advantageously use, as addition to ammonia, ethyl ether andethyl amine or a mixture of these bodies. a

The invention therefore bears particularly, a new industrial product, ona fuel constituted by a mixture of ammonia and a gaseous or highlyvolatile derivative of methyl alcohol or ethyl alcohol, soluble inammonia, such in particular as methyl or ethyl ether, monoor di-methylamine or an ethyl amine or a mixture of these bodies, the fuelconstituted by ammonia mixed with one or several of these additionalbodies being then capable of forming with air an explosive mixture.

As above stated, the invention relates in a general manner to anymixture of a gas which cannot be used alone, because its vapour tensionis too high or too low, with a volatile product soluble in this gas andgiving the whole a vapour tension ranging within limits as can beadmitted in practice.

By way of example, I will cite ethane in admixture with a suitableamount of petroleum ether, methyl alcohol, methyl or ethyl ether,acetone, methyl acetal, methyl or ethyl formiate or acetate, etc., or amixture of these bodies.

Methyl ether can further be used, according to the invention, as asolvent for dissolving ethane in ammonia, which permits of storing thethree gases in the liquefied state in the same bottle and of using asingle pressure reducing device.

I may also use methyl'ether for replacing propane with or withoutadmixture of ethane. But, for the replacement of butane, it may beadvisable, if the surrounding temperature is high, and according to thefeature above mentioned, to mix it with less volatile products and inparticular, ethyl ether, methyl alcohol, ace-- tone, benzine, petroleumether, etc., or any mixture of these bodies.

By way of indication, I will give in the following tables the calorificpowers and the flame temperatures of these various products:

Lower calorific power (p s) Hydrogen. Carbon monoxide- Acetylene When amixture of bodies such as above described is formed in a container, inorder to avoid concentration of the most volatile product, it isadvantageous, according to the invention, to collect from the containerthe mixture in the liquid state and to convey it in this state, eitherto the heating apparatus or to a volatilizing device.

In order to obtain a mixture of the main and auxiliary gases having aconstant volumetric calorific power, whatever be the conditions underwhich it is used, these two gases should be mixed together, in constantproportions, without the variations of outflow of the mixture having anyinfluence on said proportions.

For practical purposes, this result will be preferably obtained in thefollowing manner:

I make use, for instance, of two sources of gas, constituted in actualpractice by two bottles in which the two respective gases are stored upunder pressure. Of course, one of these gases or even both of them canbe in the liquid state, in said bottles. In this case, the gasesevaporate at a pressure corresponding to the tension of saturated vapourof the liquid at the temperature that is considered and thereforeconstitute the sources of gas under pressure above referred The gasesunder pressure are separately expanded in such manner as to be broughtdown both to the same pressure. I can then easily obtain the mixing ofthe two gases in constant proportions by admitting into a mixing chambervolumes of expanded gases corresponding to the desired proportions. Inparticular, it sufflces suitably to choose the sections of the conduitsconnecting the pressure reducing apparatus with the mixing chamber forobtaining the desired result.

Once the mixture of the gases in desired proportions has been obtained,I send this mixture to a gas carburettor which incorporates thereto Tthe amount of air necessary for the explosion of the whole.

As above stated, when the two gases can be measured in accordance withthe desired proportions of gases to be obtained. But, inorder that thevapours which are produced in the contained by the operation of themixture of liquids may contain constant proportions of the 'two gases,they are caused to leave the bottle through a tube dipping into. theliquid was to'extract from the bottle aliquid the evaporation of whichis subsequently produced so as to obtain a mixture of gases inproportions corresponding to the proportions of the liquid components ofthe mixture in the bottle. In this case, a single pressure reducingapparatus can be employed.

The invention is also concerned with an ap paratus for'the feed ofgaseous fuels to explosion engines.

Other features of the present invention will result from ,the followingdetailed description of some specific embodiments thereof.

A preferred embodiment of i the present invention will be hereinafterdescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings given meretion andpartly in elevation, of an apparatus made according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the plant as fitted on an automobilevehicle;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatical view of a modification.

In these drawings, I have shown at I a bottle containing liquid ammoniaand at 2 a bottle containirig a suitable auxiliary gas which will besupposed, for instance, to be ethanized illuminating gas. These twobottles are connected, through conduits 3 and 4, to pressure reducingapparatus 5 and 6 respectively.

' The ammonia gas which escapes from bottle '-I is at a constantpressure (corresponding to the vapour tension of liquefied ammonia) aslong as liquid ammonia remains in this bottle. The pressure reducingapparatus 5 is therefore intended to bring down the pressure of this gasfrom this fixed value to a given value.

On the contrary, in bottle 2, the gas pressure decreases as the bottleis emptying. The pressure reducing apparatus 6 therefore brin s thepressure of the gas escaping from bottle 2 from a value which decreasesfor instance from 30 to 1 kilogram, or from 200 to 1 kilogram (accordingto the initial value of the pressure in the bottle) down to apredetermined value equal to the low pressure supplied by the pressurereducing apparatus 5.

The expanded gases coming from apparatus 5 and 6 are fed to a mixingchamber I through conduits 8 and 9, the responsive cross sections ofwhich correspond to the ratio of the volumes of the gases to be mixedtogether in chamber 1. It will be understood that, as the gases suppliedrespectively by pressure reducing apparatus 5 and 6 are at the samepressure, the amounts of gases which are mixed together in chamber I areproportional to the sections of conduits 8 and 9.

I thus obtain in chamber 1 a mixture of gases stant, wha ever be therate of flow from said chamber.

This mixture is then fed to the gas carburetter I0 through pipe II. Ihave shown at I2 the air inlet of this carburetter andat I3 the meansfor controlling the throttle u lve thereof. The operation of this ceresults sufliciently clearly from the preceding description for makingit unnecessary to enter into supplementary explanations.

Preferably, the pressure reducing apparatus are adjusted in such manneras to bring the pressure of the gases down to a volume slightly lowerthan atmospheric pressure. Therefore, when the carburetter throttle isclosed and there is no draft capable of sucking the gases out fromchamber 1 (which corresponds to the stopping of the engine), the gasreducing apparatus do not supply any gas at low pressure and thecompressed gas bottles are closed by the control valves of theseapparatus.

In devices of the type above described with reference to the drawings,it seems that bottle I will practically always contain ammonia.

On the contrary, bottle 2 may contain any of the auxiliary gases abovementioned, or even other gases which have not been cited since theenumeration that has been given has but an indicative value and nolimitative character.

It will be found that in this case, as the various gases that can beemployed in bottle 2 have different calorific powers, it will beadvantageous to modify the section of flow through pipe 5 according tothe nature of these gases. For this purpose, I therefore provide, onthis pipe, means for varying the section thereof, for instance adiaphragm I4 controlled in any suitable manner, for example by aflexible cable I5 operated through a control I6 and extending in aflexible sheath i'I fixed at its ends at I8 and I9, or more simply by anadjusting screw. Every time the' nature of the gas contained in bottle 2is changed, the adjustment of diaphragm I4 is therefore to be modifiedthrough this control piece I 6 (or through the screw), so that thisadjustment corresponds exactly to\the properties of the particular gasesemployed."

Fig. 2 shows by way of example, the diagram of a feed system employingammonia and a compressed gas (constituting the auxiliary gas abovementioned) as used in connection with an automobile vehicle. I haveshown at 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d bottles containing the compressed gas inquestion, at 20 the inlet valve, at II the stop valve for the circuit ofthe gases coming from said bottle. 22 is a dtstributing device forconnecting pipe 4 either with pressure reducing apparatus 6 or with oneor the other of the feed conduits 23 and 24, which permits of chargingthe bottles either in a quick manner or in the normal manner. A pressuregauge 25 is also permanently connected to the distributing device withthe interposition of a cook 26. Bottle I is also connected throughconduit 3 with the pressure reducing apparatus 5. The two pressurereducing apparatus 5 and i open, respectively, through pipes I and 9,into the mixing chamber I as above described. The gas carburetter III isfed with gaseous mixture from this chamber through conduit II andsupplies the explosive mixture to engine 30, the intake manifold ofwhich is shown at 3| and the throttle pedal at 32.

I may, in the usual manner, provide a gasoline the volum}t iic calorificpower of which is conassaeos carburetter 33 which can be substituted inany suitable manner to the gas carburetter, for instancer by means of athree-way cock operated from the instrument board of the vehicle andThis device includes, on the vehicle, two horizontal bottles ll and 42,symmetrical with respect to T-piece union 43. This union piece 43 isfitted, on each branch thereof, with a cook 45, so as to permit ofsuccessively bringing each of the two bottles (which are kept underpressure by the vapour tension of the products stored therein intocommunication with the common outlet pipe 48.

This permits in particular,. and without stopping the engine, ofsuccessively connecting with pipe 4| the filled bottles which may bekept in reserve and which will come to replace the bottles in which theliquid and then the gas is exhausted.

Furthermore, cocks l1 and 48, mounted on the bottles, are fitted withtubes 49 and 50 extending into the bottles to a short distance from thewall thereof. The end of one of these tubes, to wit ll, is turneddownwardly in one ofthe bottles, to wit 4! and, therefore, dips in theliquid, while the end of the other tube, 49, is turned upwardly andtherefore opens into the vapour present in bottle I.

issuing from exhaust pipe 52 and finally leads to pressure reducingapparatus 53, into which the fuel is fed in the state of a hot vapour,which avoids any risk of condensation.

In order to permit of starting under cold weather conditions and to makeit possible to wait until the exhaust pipe is sufficiently hot forheating the liquid, so as to compensate for the cold resulting from itsevaporation and the expansion of its vapour, a rectilinear portion 55 ofthe outlet pipe is electrically heated by a resistance 54 (theconsumption of which will be for instance 100 watts, that is to saysubstantially that of the vehicle headlight).

Furthermore, in order to facilitate starting under very cold conditions,I'may make use in the bottles of a mixture containing ammonia, methylether and ethane dissolved by means of said methyl ether. ,In this case,starting of the engine will be obtained by sending into said enginevapour obtained from the second bottle (4|), this vapour being somewhatricher in hydrocarbons than the liquid mixture and permittinginstantaneous starting; the electric current consumption will be themost efficient as it will not have to compensate for the cold producedby the evaporation of the liquid. This consumption of electricity willbe unnecessary in summer and may even become unnecessary in winter if asuflicient amount of ethane is dissolved by the methyl ether.

While I have, in the above description, disclosed what I deem to bepractical and eiilcient embodiments of the present invention, it shouldbe well understood that I do not wish to be limited thereto as theremight be changes made in the arrangement, disposition and form of theparts without departing from the principle of the present invention ascomprehended within the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim is:

A fuel for internal combustion engines, comprising ammonia which ensurespractically the total amount of calorific energy of the fuel andadditional gas belonging to the group of methyl ether and amines,.thisadditional gas being used in a proportion of about 20% in weight, saidlatter gas having the following feature: A specific gravity which ishigher than .0.1 with reference to air and capable of supplying by itsapplication, the amount of heat necessary for priming the explosion ofamixture of ammonia and air.

EUGENE JUSTIN DROUILLY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,539,885 Howard June 22, 19261,912,044 Schmidt May 30, 1933 2,140,254 Zavka Dec. 13, 1938 2,357,184Frejacques Aug. 29, 1944 2,393,594 Davis Jan. 29, 1946' FOREIGN PATENTSNumber Country Date 226,143 Great Britain Jan. 1925 269,222 GreatBritain Apr. 1927 520,011 Germany Mar. 1931

